The present disclosure relates generally to fasteners, and more particularly, to fasteners with decorative caps.
Fasteners are used in numerous applications to attach various components together. Typically, a fastener has at least a threaded portion and one or more wrenching surfaces thereon. The wrenching surfaces are designed to receive torque from a tool, such as a socket or other wrench, which is used to tighten or loosen the fastener. In a conventional fastener, such as a nut, the fastener may have internal threads and six wrenching surfaces oriented in a hexagonal shape around the internal threads. However, other fasteners may have external threads, such as bolts and screws. Fasteners may also have a different number of wrenching surfaces as desired.
Decorative wheel fasteners have become an important part of wheel aesthetics in automotive styling. In particular, many automotive consumers are drawn to the aesthetics of an automobile's wheels, since this is often a distinctive part of an automobile. As a result, the wheel nuts become an integral component of the aesthetics of the wheel, and the automobile more generally, since the wheel nuts form a highly visible pattern around the center of the wheel. However, automotive wheel nuts are highly susceptible to corrosion problems due to the wet and salty environment that is often encountered by the wheels of a vehicle. Naturally, corrosion on the visible surfaces of a wheel nut greatly diminishes the aesthetic appearance of the wheel and the automobile generally.
One approach that has been highly successful in addressing wheel nut aesthetics is stainless steel capped wheel nuts. In this solution, a nut body is capped with a stainless steel covering. Since stainless steel is resistant to corrosion, highly durable and visually attractive, stainless steel capped wheel nuts have been capable of addressing a large portion of the demand for aesthetically pleasing wheel nuts. Another advantage of stainless steel capped wheel nuts is that the color of stainless steel, a shiny silverish color, generally matches the color used for most automobile wheels.
To meet ever increasing global demands for energy efficiency, automobile manufacturers have challenged suppliers to reduce mass in components, such as wheel nuts. The inventor believes the design of capped fasteners can be improved to lower weight and simplify assembly, while maintaining the highest industry standards for durability, function, and aesthetics.